http://www.express.co...ioners-face-a-500-cut
“MILLIONS of pensioners will lose an average of £500 a year in a state pension con trick played by Chancellor Alistair Darling, it emerged last night. Whitehall figures released yesterday show the Treasury will save £500million by limiting the scope of a 2.5 per cent increase in payments due to come into force in April.
Angry pensioners have been told the rise will apply only to the basic state pension while the level of other elements of their income, affecting 10million people, will be frozen.
It means some hard-up retired people could be getting around 10 per cent less than previously expected.”
I have a couple of problems with this story. The first problem is this, if there are ten million pensioners and the Treasury is saving £500 million, is that not an average of £50 per pensioner?
The second problem is if the increase should have been 2.5% on all the components of State Pension and they are not getting it, surely the deficit it is a bit less than 2.5% (since the basic pension IS going up by 2.5%) rather than 10%?